While it is happy news for Malthe Thomsen ruling in court also calls for reflection for the many parents of teenagers who consider sending exchange students to the United States.

As it was the case with the Amanda Knox case parents have to teach their children to ask to be lawyered up if they are approached by the local authorities, even if the person representing the authorities wants as little as asking for directions.

Legal procedures are different in every country. It can be hard to understand that they can detain people in Italy for a full year before deciding whether to raise charges. It can be hard to understand that a police department can build an entire case on statements made by a person known to be a drama queen and accept that this person is gone for months to another country stalling the investigation.

Legal procedures should be left with local lawyers and that is why exchange students need to call the Embassy the very minute a police officer approach them.

Malthe Thomsen could have made choices which would have stopped his ordeal within half an hour. A lawyer present during the interrogation would have both shorten the process and it would have kept him out of jail.

The lesson learned had a huge toll on this young man. Let his ordeal not be in vain for future exchange students. Learn to lawyer up right away!